A day at the park
by KeyWood
Summary: Rin left the bookstore with manga in her bag and wandered around and reached a park. She then discovers something unexpected Rated M for violence


When Rin looked at the scene in front of her she thought that maybe she was dreaming, because she remembered after she left the bookstore, with large stack of volumes of two completed manga series both of them tied together in a string, now in her bag.

She was in a place far from home so she didn't really know the area so when she was walking randomly around she saw a library and Rin thought maybe she went into the library to read the manga and then fell asleep showing this dream to her; though to be honest it was closer to a nightmare.

She watched as she saw Honoka and Umi both holding Shinai and hearing the impact of the wooden blades colliding against each other. At first Rin thought this was maybe them practicing for whatever random reason because before Honoka and Umi used to do kendo, but a couple of things she noticed as she was watching told her otherwise.

First. The look in their eyes along with their face was filled with pure rage which is not the same as how a cool but focused look on Umi would normally have, or a serious and strong look on Honoka would normally have during kendo.

Second. They were not wearing protection gear, even if Honoka was a person not to follow the rules, Umi at least would be, but neither of them had any form of protection on.

Third. The bright red marks of blows all around their body, Rin wasn't entirely sure how kendo worked but she was pretty sure that your arms and hands shouldn't have strike marks on it and definitely not any on your neck.

Rin watched as they continued at it, Honoka lunged forward with a swing of her blade going straight down which Umi side stepped and Umi followed with a swing going towards the side of Honoka's stomach which made Honoka back up away from the blow, missing her, once again Honoka lunged forward but this time she pointed the blade forward piercing like a rapier and hit Umi in the chest, Umi's face gasped a bit, pain on her face and then she grabbed the shinai which hit her and yanked it forward taking Honoka with it and pointed the blade forward and thrusted it into Honoka's stomach.

Honoka then stumbled back one hand holding her stomach from the blow while Umi got some space between them panting heavily.

A moment later they rushed at each other again and there blades collided a loud dull coming and again and again. Umi then stopped made a step back and kept her shinai up, Honoka didn't move and held her shinai up also, a pause.

Then Umi made the first move to strike Honokas head, Honoka anticipated this, side stepped and then swung and hit Umi's arm, Umi gritted her teeth at the impact and then took one hand off her shinai and swiftly hit one of Honokas legs, Honoka's shinai lowered for a brief moment at the sudden pain on her and Umi took this opportunity to strike Honoka's neck and Honoka went down on her knee's and hands, her shinai loosely on her hands from the blow, Umi continues raising her shinai to strike down on Honoka but Honoka all of a sudden swiftly swings and hits Umi leg copying her earlier actions Umi backs up from it feeling a stinging pain from it but Honoka rushes forward and strike the side of Umi's stomach sharply, Umi grunts in pain swings the shinai widely and steps back for some space.

There is now a space between them and they slowly walk in a curve but walk back to their normal position looking like a circle not connected.

Rin feels like she should stop this fight from going on and now seems like a good time to interfere, she puts down her bag without making a sound and she starts to run towards them as she gets closer she assumes they'll notice her but it seems like there to focused on each other, not paying attention at all to the fact that Rin is running toward them and they rushed forward at each other again and before their swing reaches each other the two shinai stop in place being caught in Rin's hands.

"Rin?!"

"Rin-chan!?"

Umi and Honoka stop in shock as a person showed up out of nowhere to them. Rin stops moving at the blow on her hands, the pain from it told her that she was indeed not dreaming, and if she wasn't distracted by it she would have wondered how did Honoka and Umi deal with repeated hits of these blows on their body's.

A split second later Rin took her hands off the shinai curled them into fists and did a half spin and did a backhanded blow to Umi's temple causing her to go down her eyes closing falling to the floor after that Rin met Honoka's gaze with a look of shock on her face, and she tried to defend with her shinai but didn't make it in time as Rin followed up with an uppercut to Honoka's chin knocking her out also.

Now Rin is standing with adrenaline in her body at what she just did. She didn't want to resort to using violence but the two of them didn't seem like they would stop through words alone. A minute passed as they continue to lay on the floor Rin checked to make sure they were still alive and after she did she thought what she should do now.

At first she thought about calling one of the other members but she felt like that could go badly. She then remembered she abandoned her bag so she went back to go find it where she last left it.

After retrieving the heavy bag she walked back to where Honoka and Umi lay unconscious with shinai near their arms and she picked them up after that she finally looked around to see where they were. A park swings could be seen and a slide was around also and a small sand box also.

She spotted some nearby benches also and placed the shinai on top. Rin decided to briefly carry them near that area and lay them next to each other, Rin put down her bag on the bench in front of them and she opened it and pulled out her two manga she bought with string keeping the books in place she untied both strings without tearing them and used one of them to wrap around both of Honoka's and Umi's wrists once, twice and then tied it so it looked like a cheap version of a handcuff she then did the same with the other string but slightly higher than where the original was.

She then stood up and sat down on the bench in front of them and put the two shinai on her lap and then proceeded to read vol 1. of one of the manga's she bought while glancing up to look at Honoka and Umi every once in a while to see if one of them woke up she got up to vol 3. around the middle when Umi's body moved a slightly which Rin noticed and she slowly opened her eyes, she then sat up abruptly then pain shot across her face from the movement wincing with her eyes closed, as she opens them again she meets Rin's gaze who was staring at her, her eyes briefly look down and she see's the manga then a bit lower to see the shinai then back up to Rin's gaze, Rin hasn't said anything yet and Umi looks ahead blankly trying to comprehend what's happening she looks to her side to see her hand tied up in string on her wrist she then she looks up to see who's face it is to see Honoka still out cold a moment after staring at her face twitches and she turns her head too Rin and she points to the string with her other hand and opens her mouth-

Rin cuts her off by giving her the shush motion with her hands. Umi looks like she wants to protest to that also but she stops herself and she just decides to sit there staring at the sky until Honoka wakes up.

Five minutes pass and honoka's hands twitch something Umi noticed and she turned her head, and Rin noticed that and she looked up and Honoka's eyes are slowly opening, Rin closes her manga and begins to stare at Honoka like she did with Umi. Honoka eyes now open the first thing she see's is the sky above her she moves her eyes other to the side and she sees Umi sitting down near her a moment later Honoka face twitches and she sits up abruptly the sudden movement had her wincing in pain with her eyes closed, after her eyes open again she then stands up and then she finally notices the string on her wrist and she looks around her eyes going to Rin currently sitting and she notices her staring at her she lowers her gaze and sees the shinai in her lap, Honoka then speaks up.

"Rin-chan what are you doing here?"

Rin then puts both of the shinai on top or her manga and she looks at umi as she stands up as if telling her to do the same, Umi gets the message and stands up also. Honoka notices this but doesn't do anything when all Umi does it stand also, Rin opens her mouth.

"I was spending my day off going to a book store to buy something to read" she gestures toward the manga right next to her" I wandered around afterwards what should I do next, then I saw you two in this park."

Rin then paused, she spoke again "Now tell me what were you two doing?"

Honoka and Umi then looked at each other and Rin noticed they were having a silent conversation with each other something that her and her best friend would have. They then looked back at Rin and said nothing.

Rin taking the silence as a answer then continued talking " I don't know how long exactly but I watched you two fight like samurai's" Rin looks at them as she says this and they don't seem to react but they are listening to her, she continues talking " I am not sure about the rules but you two were definitely not doing kendo, though that's obvious if you just look at each other" Rin gestured her hands to the outfits they were wearing Honoka wearing a hoodie with shorts and umi wearing a sweater only up to the elbow and a vest over that with shorts also. Honoka and Umi then look away from each other as Rin says that. More silence follows.

"Honoka-chan. Umi-Chan. Tell me the reason why you guys where trying to kill each other?" Rin made a exaggeration to get a response out of them but to no success, Honoka and Umi always were stubborn people.

Rin wants to threaten them by telling the other members if they can't tell her but she decides against it she figures they would play it off also even if their other best friend try's to get the truth out of them, so Rin goes for some drastic measures. She turns her body reaches into her bag and pulls out a box cutter one she was planning on using for the string when she got home and she turns around with it in her hand she pushes up and the blade is now showing Honoka and Umi are shocked to see it and they begin to open their mouths.

"Rin-chan?" Honoka's voice worried and slightly fearful.

"Rin put that away!" Umi's voice slightly higher and anxious.

Not the response she was looking for so she spoke up. "If you tell me the whole situation I'll cut those strings off your wrists".

Honoka and Umi's mouths shut after hearing that and once again they looked at each other Rin speaks again to bargain once more.

"I will drop this subject and wont tell our friends or anybody else and I will pretend this never happened" Rin really wanted to know why these two friends were so violent toward each other, sure they had their differences but it was always something you could reason with if you watched long enough, however Rin couldn't see any reason, only two people swinging bamboo blades at each other.

Honoka and Umi still staring at each other nodded and they turned to rin again. Honoka is the first to speak up.

"It started when I just entered middle school and I joined the kendo club with Umi-chan, we practiced and got better when to matches and got better continued to go to matches." "After half a year of continuously improving one day slow but steady, I felt something, like there was something missing" she paused to look at Umi she continued "I then told Umi-chan about it that I feel like there is something bothering me in kendo whenever I play it," "Umi-chan then responded to me saying "well this might be a reason why I'm doing better than you at this"".

Rin was quite surprised to hear this but then again it was when they just started middle school. She continued listening "since I was young at the time I got worked up and told her "I bet I could beat you if we dropped the rules of kendo!"

Umi then took this opportunity to speak up "and I as a kid was not disciplined enough to stop myself from taking the bait, instead I said "you're on!" "We then met up on a free day with both of our shinai with out and when I arrived I didn't bring any protective gear only the case holder and Honoka did the same".

"At first we were unsure what to do so Honoka just rushed forward and started to strike at me I blocked and attempted to make a kendo strike when Honoka pulled back and threw a strike at my hands making me lose my grip and then she followed up with a strike on my stomach!" "at this point I probably should have admitted defeat and let Honoka get this win because I was aware of the details before hand, however I had pride too at that young age so like flip of a switch in my myself I then swung widely at Honoka she dodged this but after that I followed up with a strike to her knee and after stood in place in pain I striked her across the face".

Honoka then spoke up " so after that I was just as angry as Umi-chan was so I then went back and collided blades with her she responded the same and we went at it with that kind of brutality until I was knocked out by a temple blow by Umi-chan".

"When I woke up Umi-chan was there in front of me I was about to admit defeat but Umi-chan said " I technically went down first so you cant really say you lost" "after I heard that I declared to Umi-chan "lets do this again next year!"

Then Umi took over "I responded by saying I accept" "since then we did this yearly".

Rin after hearing the story was quite shocked even though there was a reason she could understand a little but she still had questions.

"How come you had angry looks on your face though?"

"I would say it's something like a trigger when one of us does the first non-kendo strike that hits".

"I noticed it also and it only happens when we do this so I guess it's like a ritual basically".

"How about all of those marks? What do you tell other people?"

"When we were in middle school we would just tell them it was from kendo practice".

"During our first year of high school we covered it up with makeup".

"Does anybody else know about this?"

"No".

"Of course not".

Umi and Honoka answers Rin's questions with honesty oozing out of there mouths.

"Who wins then?"

"When one of the other admits defeat or when one loses consciousness".

They both say at the same time.

Rin feels like the next question should be asked even if the answer would be vague.

"Why did both of your faces twitch when you looked at each other?"

"Its something I do after I lose".

"Something like the switch turning off after it is over".

Honoka and Umi stared each other after saying this answer and nodded at each other.

Rin's next question should have an obvious answer but she still needs to say it.

"Do both of you still love each other?"

A look of shock is on Honoka's and Umi's face as they hear the question laced with concern, it makes sense really both of them were aware that would they were doing was enough for even their best friend to ask the same question if she saw what the two of them were doing.

"Yes!" the answer at the same time they share glances for a quick moment and then smile at each other.

Rin seems satisfied by it and she ponders if there's anything else she should ask but comes to a blank.

"Ok I promise I won't tell anybody about this, here hold out your wrists I'll cut the string"

Honoka and Umi seem surprised by this they both figured the truth would be exposed because of how ridiculous the story was they themselves were already aware of it. Still they held out their wrists and they watched as the string was easily cut and they were now free from each other.

A moment later and shinai are pushed into their hands Rin is now smiling for the first time in their whole conversation.

"Well I have to go" Rin puts away the manga into her bag and puts it on and she hold up a hand imitating what you do in court "I promise not to tell anybody about this" She then gave a cheeky grin and then walked away to back track where she came from to go back home.

Honoka and Umi are then left alone in the park, they stare at each other for a couple of moments before they walk over to some trees and pull out their bags and they put away their stuff.

Honoka and Umi face each other once again and their eye wanders across each other's body looking at what they did to each other and they chuckle at each other.  
"We can go to your place first to cover this stuff first then we can go to mine to eat some manjuu?"

"With green tea?"

"Of course!"

"Then I accept the plan and your offer, I want extra".

Honoka laughs out loud

"Ok ok lets go home?"

"Let us go then",

Honoka and Umi smile at each other one more time before walking home hand in hand.


End file.
